http://altgate.disqus.com/A blog on startups, venture capital and everything in betweenenThu, 12 Feb 2009 16:34:51 -0000http://altgate.com/blog/2009/02/an-engineers-suggestion-for-the-stimulus-plan.html#comment-6220151<p>What productive, socioeconomically beneficial role might the venture capital industry play in the upcoming economic stimulus/recovery efforts?</p><p><a href="http://bgladd.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-now.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://bgladd.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-now.html">http://bgladd.blogspot.com/...</a></p>BobbyGThu, 12 Feb 2009 16:34:51 -0000http://altgate.com/blog/2009/02/an-engineers-suggestion-for-the-stimulus-plan.html#comment-6174263<p>I'd say that this isn the difference between engineers and scientists, but between scientists and philosophers. One of the fundamental rules of science is that you absolutely must base everything on experiment.</p><p>(incidentally this is why I and so many of my scientist and mathematician friends sneer at economists, the majority of whom - it often seems - would rather pontificate, or gamble the lives of millions on "theory", than ever risk proving themselves wrong)</p><p>(oh, and the fact that so many of them that believe they are incredibly good at Math ... aren't ;).)</p>adamWed, 11 Feb 2009 07:25:36 -0000http://altgate.com/blog/2009/02/an-engineers-suggestion-for-the-stimulus-plan.html#comment-6145409<p>Maybe randomly pick a few states and they get nothing so that way there would be a "control" sample in the equation to compare the others against. That sounds a little harsh, but perhaps not since a lot of the Republicans feel that is the optimal strategy so they might even volunteer.</p>fnazeeriTue, 10 Feb 2009 14:58:56 -0000http://altgate.com/blog/2009/02/an-engineers-suggestion-for-the-stimulus-plan.html#comment-6142433<p>Good plan, Furqan!</p><p>PS: Just saw this one newmogul.</p>Steve D.Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:52:05 -0000http://altgate.com/blog/2009/02/an-engineers-suggestion-for-the-stimulus-plan.html#comment-6141009<p>That is a freaking awesome idea. Of course that means no politician will listen to it. You'd also have to figure out how to isolate the effects of the stimulus from the resulting data to see if it was the stimulus or just the natural order of things that fixed it. At least we'd know where the money went unlike the $700+ billion bailout.</p>BeardoTue, 10 Feb 2009 11:49:34 -0000http://altgate.com/blog/2009/02/an-engineers-suggestion-for-the-stimulus-plan.html#comment-6133958<p>Furqan, I have to say there's probably a reason that your math works out to $200k/job. It's because the government isn't just funding just jobs.</p><p>When you build a road/bridge/other infrastructure a significant portion of the cost is the steel, materials, equipment, etc. (And of course it's those knock-on effects that theoretically create the Keynesian "multiplier" effect that gives a stimulus more bang for its buck.) How much of the total is real infrastructure, I haven't seen, but I'll guess it's a good chunk of cash.</p><p>I really don't wholeheartedly agree with the way the stimulus is turning out, but when you've got two opposing views of how government should be run and how to effect the economy in government, it's no wonder the result is a bit of a mess.</p>jedcTue, 10 Feb 2009 03:06:08 -0000http://altgate.com/blog/2009/02/an-engineers-suggestion-for-the-stimulus-plan.html#comment-6131707<p>I liked the suggestion at <a href="http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/422902.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/422902.html">http://bradhicks.livejourna...</a> which seemed to be bsed on historical evidence.</p>AnonMon, 09 Feb 2009 23:50:43 -0000